History of public land law development

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82 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT debt and to meet its current obligations. It sold scrip-land office money-at 50 cents an acre and granted enormous amounts of land to soldiers for military service and headrights to incoming immigrants. It is estimated that altogether during the years of Texan independence 30 million acres were granted. But Texas could not find the resources to dispose of its burdensome debt. Five years after annexation, it sold to the United States 78,842,880 acres of its western lands for $10 million (the total sum paid Texas for its land cessions was $15,496,448), thereby retiring its debt and adding to the territories that became New Mexico, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas.10 Had not slavery and other divisive political issues intervened, Texas would undoubtedly have been brought into the Union earlier than 1845. Whig opposition and the continued fear of New England that the progressive advance of the population into the Southwest might seriously damage its position and influence in the Nation for a time strengthened the forces in opposition to annexation. However, when it appeared that the British preferred independence for Texas, and when California was proving seductive to some Americans, Texas gained friends. The election of 1844, though very close, was a victory for expansion. Sensing the support for annexation, John Tyler succeeded in getting Congress to adopt a joint resolution to provide for annexation on March 1, 1845, and on December 29, 1845, Texas became a State in the Union.11 Not even colonial Virginia with its huge claims to land north of the Ohio River in 10 Henry Cohen has an illuminating chapter on the background of the move of the Federal government to buy a portion of the public lands of Texas and to aid the state in paying its public debt in "Business and Politics from the Age of Jackson to the Civil War: A Study from the Life of W. W. Corcoran" (Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, 1965), pp. 268 ff. 11 Frederick Merk, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History (New York, 1963), pp. 38-46; Donaldson, The Public Domain, pp. 120-25. addition to present West Virginia and Kentucky had controlled as large an area as Texas at the time of its annexation. Perhaps an eighth of its land had been granted away by 1845, but there still remained over 200 million acres of public land that the act of admission specifically stated should be retained by Texas. It is natural to inquire why the Lone Star State was permitted to retain its enormous public domain when in the 1780's the United States had repeatedly and successfully urged the states to cede their western lands to the Nation. The land system of Texas, as of 1836-somewhat less so by 1845-was based on Spanish law. To make it conform to Anglo-Saxon land law would involve difficulties, but these had been overcome in Florida and Louisiana and would surely be no more of a task in Texas. When the United States was trying to induce the states to cede their western land claims it was desperately in need of funds, whereas in 1845 the government enjoyed a substantial surplus of income over outgo, and the debt was little more than that of Texas and in no sense a burden.12 Probably the chief reason it was deemed wise to leave the public lands to Texas was that it had been a free state for nearly 10 years. During this time it had retained and managed its public lands and developed its land office; the lands had not yielded as much as had been expected to aid in financing the state's current obligations and in retiring its debt, but its officials were optimistic that in the future they would bring in large returns to the government. The Texas debt had become widely held by people in various walks of life. To assume those debts would have involved the Federal government in an intimate investigation of the administration of the various Texas agencies during the 10 years of independence. This would have been a formidable task in itself, and most inexpedient to have under- 12 The surplus for 1845 was $7,033,000 and the debt was $15,925,000. Historical Statistics (Washington, 1957), p. 711.